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Chamber donates to Mesquite Works

Money will allow Mesquite Works focus efforts on job training instead of fundraising

Mesquite Chamber of Commerce announced the donation of $7,500 to Mesquite Works on Thursday, September 7. "We had enough money in the bank to take us through this year for rent, but we knew we had to face the coming rent. So what that $7,500 does is it pays the rents and utilities for our training space and office space for a year," Weast said.(Photo: Lucas Thomas/DVT)

Mesquite Works will continue training local job-seekers at its location on 312 W. Mesquite Boulevard thanks to a donation from the Mesquite Chamber of Commerce.

In a meeting with reporters Thursday, Chamber president Brenda Snell announced a $7,500 donation made in July to the workforce development agency aimed at creating the city’s workforce of the future.

The donation is part of a three-pronged collaboration between Mesquite Works, the Chamber of Commerce, and Mesquite Regional Business to enhance the city's business community and increase job prospects for its workers.

The money will cover all of Mesquite Works’ rent and utilities costs for the next year, allowing the organization to focus efforts on workforce training rather than fundraising.

“We had enough money in the bank to take us through this year for rent, but we knew we had to face the coming rent,” said Burton Weast, chair of Mesquite Works.

Snell mentioned that the opportunity to provide the money aligned perfectly with the Chamber’s mission statement to “Encourage and benefit the growth of business in the Mesquite area.”

“When it became known to us that Mesquite Works needed a little bit of help financially to keep it in place, we felt as the Chamber that it was very important we were able to provide it. It met all of the pieces of our vision and our mission statement. It’s very important that Mesquite Works exists here in Mesquite for multiple reasons,” Snell said.

The main reason that keeping Mesquite Works open is vital to the community, according to Snell, Weast, and Mesquite Regional Business CEO Rachel Dahl, is because of what it signifies to prospective businesses.

“Before, what would happen is companies would come in and say, ‘Does this town have any workers? Do you provide any training?’” Weast said. “We had to say, ‘Well, no,’ and now we can say, ‘Yes, we can get you training through Mesquite Works, or Mesquite Works working with MRB can find someone to do the training,’ and that’s what happened here.”

Dahl pointed specifically to the REV Group, the company that plans to break ground on a 76,500 square foot RV repair facility next month, as an example of the city tailoring workforce development efforts to the needs of a particular business.

When REV mentioned to city officials that they’d need specially-trained facility managers to operate their site, Mesquite Works and Mesquite Regional Business approached Darlene Montague, facilities management coordinator for the College of Southern Nevada and an officer of Mesquite Works, about modifying the college’s program in North Las Vegas to meet Mesquite’s future needs.

Officials from CSN then met with the REV Group and Mesquite Works to determine what would work best.

“It was pretty integral to their making a decision,” Dahl said. “Any company that you talk to across the country would say their No. 1 concern when looking at locating somewhere is workforce. That’s the number one question they all ask. Because of Mesquite works we have the ability to say yes we can train you a workforce … so that solves a problem.”

It turns out that the REV Group wasn’t the only industry in town excited about training more workers in facility management.

“Once we found out we can do that, both Casablanca and Eureka were giddy we would have facilities management trained people. And also the hospital (representatives) said they can’t get enough folks who have that training. So it turns out that’s a really high demand occupation out here, so if we can offer that training we’re providing for the entire community not just REV Group,” Dahl said.

Dahl also said MRB is working with REV to explore the possibility of opening a lab somewhere in Mesquite where CSN’s modified program can be enacted in a real life setting.

Mesquite Works is optimistic about the impact they’re having in the community. Weast pointed to figures from August’s job fair that 195 job seekers attended. Twenty-eight people were hired from that job fair and 41 received interviews. The next job fair is scheduled for Nov. 1.